Industry experts share the best strategies and tips for offering cryotherapy to members.
With recovery methods continuing to surge in the fitness industry, more clubs are embracing cryotherapy — exposing one’s body to very cold temperatures over a short span of time.
The Houstonian Club is fully incorporating this modality for members. In its recently opened recovery section called The Covery, Taylor Decell, the manager and lead nurse of The Covery, said both localized and whole-body cryotherapy options are currently available.
The localized options are targeted spot treatments for specific areas of the body. Meanwhile, Decell said the club’s MECOTEC full-body chamber is fully electric, which is different than many liquid nitrogen cryotherapy options.
“With those liquid nitrogen chambers, unfortunately the head cannot be in them,” said Decell. “With our chamber, the member gets the full benefit of having the head exposed. In cold therapy, you need to have your brain stem exposed to the cold to really get a central nervous system reset.”
Decell said the MECOTEC chamber has space for members to experience it one at a time. While in use, temperatures fluctuate between -115 to -123 degrees. As such, The Houstonian’s main priority is to ensure careful supervision by trained staff while members use the chamber.
In fact, Decell said cryotherapy is mostly safe, but clubs should stay away from having a chamber accessible to members without supervision. This is because some people are hardcore and think more is better. But that’s not always true. Chambers need to be operated under trained staff who can assess health conditions.
“One of the most important things for us in recovery is a dedicated space for members,” said Decell. “You must make sure they are doing it in a safe way because the temperatures are very cold. If someone goes too long or if they don’t have their medical history checked out beforehand, something bad could happen.”
This level of care toward cryotherapy can also be found at Western Racquet and Fitness Club which also has whole-body and localized options. Mary Thomas, the general manager, said they use an Impact Cryotherapy chamber and devices from NEXT Wellness.
Thomas said if done correctly and consistently, cryotherapy can have multiple positive effects on a user’s overall well-being.
“It’s a huge boost in both mood and mental state,” said Thomas. “It’s that hit of dopamine. It helps with things like depression and anxiety. So often we think it’s for the hardcore athletes. But it really is for every single person because everyone is probably contending with an issue cryotherapy can help with. Another neat thing is it can help get people off medication. I don’t think people see it in that sense yet.”
Different from the chamber at The Houstonian, Thomas said their chamber is powered by liquid nitrogen and does not include one’s head. While she said there are benefits to both options and the decision between which method to employ depends on personal experience, she prefers liquid nitrogen modalities since they can get a bit colder, and users can go in with less clothes on.
“There are also some different thoughts with the cost of running an electric unit versus liquid nitrogen,” said Thomas. “People who sell either of the devices will tell you one is better than the other. I think you must play it out. There is a danger with gaseous fluid, so there might be less of a barrier to entry with the electric route.”
One recommendation Thomas had to achieve success with cryotherapy is to never have it as the only recovery option in your club. She advised to offer a whole suite of options to promote overall well-being.
For example, Western Racquet and Fitness Club has Hyperice products, and members have free access to those. As they are utilizing them, members observe cryotherapy users coming out of the chamber. Seeing it in use can get them interested in the option.
The Houstonian Club also values making recovery and cryotherapy a complete offering by personalizing the experience for members. Decell said this is because what works for one user may not work at all for another.
“Some members are older and have a lot of aches and pains,” said Decell. “What we might recommend for them as far as frequency and duration in the chamber might be very different than what we offer a young athlete who is working out heavily and doesn’t have aches and pains. Tailor the recommendation for cryotherapy based on the individual person.”
Thanks in part to this level of personalization, Decell said cryotherapy is by far The Houstonian’s most popular modality in recovery. She credited this success because many members were already familiar and had been exposed to cryotherapy.
“It brought people in our doors here,” said Decell. “Once people started doing cryotherapy, they got exposed to everything else we offer. Don’t think twice about adding cryotherapy. Even though the chambers aren’t cheap, if it’s even a thought for you, bring them in.”
Thomas shared similar, successful experiences at her club where cryotherapy is also very popular. However, she’s noticed members aren’t the heaviest users of the space. Instead, word of mouth about cryotherapy is attracting non-members who are battling different health issues and need the specific assistance the modality can provide.
“What we are doing is creating a tier on top of our standard club membership that says for $25 extra per month you can get 35 wellness services per month,” said Thomas. “There will be another option that’s $35 for 50 services per month. My hope is when we price it that way, the public will say it makes more sense to have a club membership because they can add this wellness offering.”
But no matter the pricing or strategy employed, the most important way to achieve success with cryotherapy is by having members experience the method firsthand.
“I tend to say give people three free sessions at first,” said Thomas. “People need to come in consistently and see how it works and see if they feel different. It won’t work magic with just one use. You truly need to do it for blocks of time to see the true benefit. Once they are in that far, your members are hooked.”
